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Deadly companion The discovery of one of the most extreme star systems ever seen, called a black widow pulsar, is providing astronomers with new insights into how some of the fastest spinning stars in the cosmos are made.

The work could also open new windows into some of the most exotic states of matter known, including black holes and quark gluon plasma, according to one of the study's researchers, Professor Roger Romani of Stanford University, California.

Just like black widows spiders and their Australian cousins, the redbacks, these rare pulsars are notorious for their tendency to kill and devour their partners.

Black widows and redbacks both comprise of a rapidly spinning pulsar in a binary orbit with a small star — the former are smaller and of lower mass than the later.

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, the stellar cores of dead stars that were much more massive than the Sun. As they spin, they emit jets of high energy particles flashing like a lighthouse beacon.

"They seem to be very heavy, spin very fast, and may be pushing our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter."

NASA's Earth orbiting Fermi gamma-ray telescope detected a number of pulsar like gamma-ray signals which won't exhibiting the characteristic radio signatures of pulsars.

Romani and colleagues examined six of these using optical telescopes, finding each were comprised of a small star orbiting very close in to an extremely compact object, most likely a black widow pulsar.

Record setting

A more detailed analysis eventually isolated a pulse in data collected from one object named PSR J1311-3430, confirming it as a black widow.

This system contains one of the most massive neutron stars ever detected. It also has the closest orbiting binary partner, circling the pulsar once every 93 minutes.

The side facing of the star the pulsar is blasted by winds of high-energy particles, powerful magnetic fields and intense radiation, causing it to glow blue-white and reach temperatures of 12,000°C.

According to Romani, the hapless companion is slowly being destroyed by the pulsar, which may result in it becoming a solitary fast-spinning millisecond pulsar.

The high mass of black widows also raises questions about the fundamental physics of ultra-dense matter.

"At some point if you throw enough mass onto these neutron stars, they must collapse down to form black holes," says Romani.

By measuring the masses of black widows, Romani hopes to establish an upper limit for the mass of neutron stars, and a lower limit for the mass of black holes.

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